Sanitation policy (which includes
water supply and treatment, sewage collection and treatment,
collection and final disposal of solid wastes and urban
drainage) is under the responsibility of the Urban Policy
Secretariat of the Ministry of Planning and Budget -
SEPURB/MPO.
There are also governmental
bodies for coordination of water resource management,
development and policy in all 26 States and in the Federal
District, which manage water under state jurisdiction. At the
local level: the so-called Municipal Consortia define
actions, coordinate and promote efforts with a view to
improving the conditions of the basin, particularly
concerning the quality, quantity and availability of the
waters.. At the river basin level, 43 Basin Committees have
been established to date, 39 of these at state level and 4 in
basins of rivers under Federal jurisdiction. Around 50% are
found in the South East.
These Committees make decisions
on conflicts of use of water resources, approve the Steering
Plans for Water Resources of the River Basins and follow-up
their implementation. The general
legislation and regulatory framework for water management
includes the following:
National Water
Resources Policy, 1997.
Provisional Measure No. 813/95, and its
successive reissues, dealing with the organization of the
Presidency of the Republic and the Ministries.
Ministry of Health Directive No. 36, dated
19/01/90, on potability of water
Federal Constitution, 1988.
CONAMA (National Environment Council)
Resolution No. 20, 1986, which deals with the
classification of water bodies
National Environment Policy, 1981.
Water Code (Código de Aguas), 1934.
The legislation which covers the use of
water by agriculture includes:
The National Irrigation Policy Law No.
6662, dated 25/6/79.
Regulatory Framework for the National
Irrigation Policy - Decree No. 89,496, dated 29/3/84 and
Decree No. 2,178, dated 17/03/97.
That for the use of water by
industry:
CONAMA Resolution
No. 237, dated 19/12/97, regulates environmental
licensing of activities that use natural resources
(including construction, installation, modification and
operation).
CONAMA Resolution No. 001/86 deals with
the implementation of environmental impact assessment.
Law No. 4904, from 1965, establishes
National Department of Water and Electricity (DNAEE).
Presidential Decree No. 2335, from 1997,
establishes the National Electric Energy Agency.
For use by households: The
Federal Constitution defines, under its Article 21, that it
is the responsibility of the Federal Government to
"establish guidelines for urban development, including
housing, basic sanitation and urban transportation" and,
under its Article 23, that it is the responsibility of
Federal, State and Local Governments to "protect the
environment and combat pollution in all its forms" and
to "promote programs to build housing and improve
housing conditions and basic sanitation".
At the federal legislative level,
a bill that deals with guidelines for granting authority and
for defining the inter-relationship among Federal, State and
Local Governments with respect to public sanitation services
is being discussed.
Within the Federal Government,
the Ministry of Environment recently formulated the National
Desertification Plan whose objective is to propose actions to
prevent degradation, to combat and control desertification as
well as the effects of drought in the affected States. The
country has for decades adopted policies to create jobs and
water reserves in affected regions,especially in Northeast
region and S o Francisco River basin.
The Water Law January 8, 1977)
establishes the principle of decentralized and participatory
management, with the discussion on the best management
practices with local users. The law provides for the
participation of users in the National Water Resources
Council and in the Basin Committees. In the latter,
participation of users accounts for fifty percent.
The National Irrigation and
Drainage Policy provides for public projects for farming
families with areas of 4-10 ha, occupying up to fifty percent
of the total project area. There are programs for
capacity-building and technology transfer for these new
farming families.
With respect to the Sanitation
Sector, social organizations had an active participation in
the process of drafting the National Sanitation Policy.
Moreover, the prioritization and selection of projects for
financing under the Pro-Saneamento Program is carried out in
a decentralized manner by Councils existing in the 27 States
and made up of representatives of State and Local Governments
and organized civil society from housing and sanitation
sectors
With regard to pricing policies,
Law No. 9,433/97, in its Article 5, paragraph IV and in
Articles 19 and 22, provides for charging for water use as
one of the instruments of the National Water Resources
Policy. A law with pricing provisions has been adopted in 14
States and in the Federal District. At the Federal level, it
is undergoing the review process. The structure of the
tariffs for water and sewage services, both household and
industrial, as well as for public irrigation, is made up in
such a way as to cover the full costs of exploitation,
maintenance, operation, depreciation and remuneration.
However, due to management inefficiency and economic and
financial difficulties, some services incur deficits. The
sanitation and irrigation policies currently being
implemented will enable the systems to become feasible.
Wherever this is impossible, because of the low income of
local population, fiscal subsidies are allowed by Federal,
State and Local governments.
For agricultural use the National
Irrigation and Drainage Program, currently under execution,
uses the strategy of applying cost recovery for all users,
including the public sector, promoting the increase of the
efficiency of water conveyance, distribution and application
in irrigated cultures. Irrigation projects are expected to
expand the irrigated area by about 25%, with the same amount
of water being currently used. Public irrigation projects
(around 6% of the total area, that is, 150,000 ha) completely
recover investment costs according to Law No. 6662. The
private sector, responsible for circa 94% of the irrigated
area in the country (2,600,000 ha) will have to pay for the
use of water, as established by Law No. 9433, dated 08/01/97,
which is being regulated.
The present irrigation policy
stimulates the efficient use of water; reduction of losses;
and activities that avoid the degradation of water resources.
It also presents guidelines for the use of drainage systems
to prevent salinization and saturation of soils. Entities
that implement public irrigation projects buy large areas and
through studies, transform these areas into systems that meet
the needs of small and medium sized companies; and into
smaller areas that meet the needs of farmers' families. The
private sector continues to extend its participation in
irrigated areas, stimulated by governmental projects and
programs that promote systems of electrical support,
hydraulic infrastructure, institutional capacity building and
strengthening in regions with irrigation potential.
With respect to production of
hydroelectric energy, the ongoing privatization program is
transforming a sector mainly made up of public companies into
a sector where the participation of private companies will be
predominant. At this time, the hydroelectric sector is
required to pay for the use of impounded water for hydropower
generation. Other industrial user sectors already pay for
water with tariffs that cover the costs of investment and
exploitation of water supply systems, but they frequently do
not cover the costs of sanitary sewerage systems.
In the Sanitation and Water
Supply Sector, the responsibility for defining service
tariffs is exclusively that of the States in the case of
common interest services, and of Counties, in all other
situations.The tariff is made up of the following costs:
exploitation, operation, maintenance, depreciation and
remuneration. Thus, when the provisions of Law No. 9433,
dated 08/01/97, are established, an amount corresponding to
the costs of capture and consumption of gross water and
disposal of effluents will be included. The participation of
the private sector in providing sanitation services is still
very limited in Brazil. However, one of the main strategies
of the National Sanitation Policy, which intends to make
water and sewerage services universal, is intervention to
improve the level of efficiency of service providers and
coordination of public and private efforts in order to
promote the reorganization and modernization of the sector.
From the point of view of the
National Sanitation Policy, the basic objective is to make
water supply and sewerage available to everyone, be it by
expanding the supply, or be it by management of the demand,
thus promoting conditions for the economic development of the
country. Its intervention strategy encourages and conditions
the efficiency of the sector, as part of the economy. The
States and Counties are encouraged to establish specific
goals to meet the needs of the poor, particularly in the
cases of participation by the private sector, even seeking to
define a principle of essential consumption. The National
Sanitation Policy proposes the allotment of resources to
subsidize the implementation of systems in the poorer
Counties, as a means of providing services.
In order to prevent pollution of
freshwater supplies, several programmes have been implemented
by the States. Under direct implementation of the Federal
Government, the following may be highlighted:
The PQA (Projeto
Qualidade das aguas e Controle da Poluiço Hidrica) -
Project for Water Quality and Control of Water Pollution
aims to provide technical and financial support to the
preparation of investment programs for the environmental
sanitation of hydrographic water basins that have an
elevated level of pollution, specially in areas of high
urban density and intense productive dynamics. It is an
innovative initiative, marked by simultaneous efforts,
seeking solutions that consider: i) physical
interventions, designed with a multidisciplinary and
systemic perspective, capable of promoting the recovery
and protection of environmental quality, and as a
consequence, improving the living conditions of the
populations that live in metropolitan regions or
important urban agglomerations, according to equations of
least cost and greatest environmental benefit; and ii)
institutional arrangements, capable of providing
sustained management of hydrographic water basins,
including the development of economic environmental and
natural resources management instruments.
PROGEST (Programa
de Apoio y Gest o dos Sistemas de Coleta e Disposicao de
Resíduos Sólidos) Program to Support the Management of
Systems for Collecting and Disposing of Solid Wastes.
This program aims to support the establishment of a
nationwide policy for the urban solid wastes sector,
geared towards the solution of collection and final
disposal problems. Its actions benefit, among others,
those counties situated in the areas of source
protection, thus contributing to prevention of
environmental pollution and, therefore, indirectly,
aiding in the conservation of water bodies and in the
increase of quality and quantity of water supply.
PRO-SANEAMENTO
(Pro-Sanitation)- the objective of this program is to
increase coverage of the following services: water
supply, sanitary sewerage, urban drainage and urban solid
wastes, as well as improving service efficiency. Within
this program, the Sanitary Sewerage section is intended
to increase the appropriate coverage and/or treatment and
final disposal of effluents. The Solid Wastes section is
intended to finance projects to increase the coverage of
appropriate treatment and final disposal of urban solid
wastes. Furthermore, within this program, there is an
added incentive in the Sanitary Sewerage section, where
the rate of interest is lower than that in other sections
of the program.
PROGRAMA DE
POTABILIDADE DA ÁGUA - Water Drinkability Program. The
Ministry of Health has as one of its responsibilities the
application of Directive No. 36, that aims to assess and
monitor the drinkability of water of the public water
supply systems in the country.
There are also several programmes
implemented by the States. Under direct implementation by
the Federal Government, five programs may be highlighted:
The PROGRAMA DE
CONSERVAÇÄ O E REVITALIZAÇÄ O DOS RECURSOS H DRICOS
(Program for the Conservation and Revitalization of Water
Resources) aims to contribute to the control of pollution
of water resources and, consequently, improve the
availability of water, in terms of quantity and quality,
in several basins in Brazil. It is being implemented by
the Water Resources Secretariat/MMA. The main objective
of this program is to provide revitalization and
conservation of water resources as a whole. This is to be
done within the perspective of the hydrological cycle,
through the management of the physical and biotic
environments, having the hydrographic basin, primarily
for capture, as a unit for planning and work.
The PMSS - Projeto
de Modernizaçã o do Setor Saneamento (Project to
Modernize the Sanitation Sector)- is an instrument of the
National Sanitation Policy aimed at reordering, improved
efficiency and efficacy of sanitation services, by
adopting a strategy that consists mainly in inducing the
efficiency of public operators, and establishing and
inducing the participation of private operators and
businesses. These reordering actions would be basically
represented by the technical assistance of the Federal
Government, aiming at the creation of regulatory
frameworks, management models and the improvement of the
efficiency in provision of services. The regulatory
frameworks will establish quality standards for water
supply as well as for the quality of effluents discharged
in the receiving bodies. The investment component acts
through direct actions for rehabilitation, optimization
and expansion of collection and treatment of sanitary
sewage.
The PASS -
Programa de Açã o Social em Saneamento (Social Action
Program for Sanitation) is directed towards the
implementation of projects in water supply and sanitary
sewerage; collection and disposal of solid wastes in the
poorest areas in large cities and small and medium sized
counties, in order to improve the population's health and
living conditions. Through actions in sanitary sewerage
and collection and disposal of solid wastes, the program
acts directly in the control of water pollution and,
indirectly, in the conservation of water bodies.
The PROSEGE -
Programa de Açã o Social em Saneamento (Social Action
Program for Sanitation) was conceived and structured to
generate double benefits to the most vulnerable segments
of the population of large and medium sized urban centers
of the country. At the same time that it enabled
temporary solutions for critical unemployment problems,
especially in construction, executing projects to
implement/expand the sanitary sewerage system, it
increased the coverage of sanitation services, ensuing
favorable effects on the health and living conditions of
the targeted population. The program was developed in
order to provide improved living conditions for lower
income populations, by investment in basic sanitation,
preferably in projects with assured environmental,
technical, financial and socioeconomic feasibility.
The PROSANEAR
Program provides for integrated actions in sanitation,
involving, among others, implementation and improvement
of following services: water supply, sanitary sewerage,
separation of solid wastes and microdrainage in degraded
urban areas occupied by lower income populations, in
cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. Pollution
prevention, and consequent conservation and increase in
water supply in the sources of the region, is one of the
effects of the program, as an appropriate disposal is
made for both sewage and solid wastes.
The regional strategic plan for
Latin America and the Caribbean to improve drinking water,
coordinated by PAHO and WHO, through technical cooperation,
aims to develop strategies for the protection, conservation,
quality and drinkability of water to improve the environment
and human health.
The National Water Resources
Policy has among its main objectives, assuring current and
future generations the required availability of water, with
quality standards appropriate to its respective uses. Thus,
many of the actions undertaken by the Water Resources
Secretariat and other government agencies are directed to
increasing gross water supply in the water bodies in
appropriate quantities and quality. Among the principal
measures adopted by the Federal Government are the following:
The PRO GUA -
Programa de Desenvolvimento de Recursos H¡dricos para o
Semi- rido Brasileiro ( Program to Develop Water
Resources for the Brazilian Semi-Arid Region) - has among
its goals, the implementation of new projects that,
besides ensuring increased water availability, promote
both improvement of the quality of life of the local
population and the protection of the environment.
The Projeto gua
Boa (Good Water Project) seeks to increase the
availability of drinking water, especially for the
communities of the Brazilian Semi-Arid Region. It intends
to desalinate brackish waters from deep wells using the
inverse osmosis process.
The Programa
Nacional de Combate ao Desperd¡cio de gua (National
Program to Combat Water Waste), has as its main objective
to promote the wise use of water for public supply, to
benefit public health, environmental sanitation, and
efficiency of services. The program's strategy consists
in identifying and implementing measures that revert the
identified wasteful situation, based on actions and
technological, regulatory, economic and institutional
instruments, aiming at an effective saving of water.
The major constraints faced by
the Government in reaching its objectives in the area of
integrated management of water resources include: - the short
period of existence of the sector itself, institutionalized
by Law No. 9433/97; - insufficient financial resources; -
fragile existing institutional framework; - lack of
specialization and capacity building of human resources; -
deficiencies in controlling the use of natural resources.
In the case of sanitation, the
greatest challenges faced are the restrictions of public
debt, reducing the capacity of investment of the Public
Sector; and the non-existence of regional regulatory
frameworks that stimulate the efficiency and participation of
the private sector. Other factors are the size and
qualification of the deficit, the payment capacity of the
Public Sector, the improvement required in the production of
projects and managerial capacity.
One of the general guidelines of
the National Water Resources Policy is the integration of
water resources management with environmental management,
which is reflected in the Plans and Programs that the Water
Resources Secretariat is developing.
The National Water Resources
Policy foresees not only the drafting of steering plans for
water resources, by State and by River Basins, many of which
have already been or are being developed, but also the
formulation of a National Water Resources Plan. This National
Plan, which will formulate the guidelines for integrating
water management with management of land use and occupation,
is undergoing development at the Water Resources Secretariat.
Also under preparation are the
terms of reference for several irrigation development
subprograms (for the cerrados, plains, green belts,
semi-arid) which will be carried out in areas that do not
engender environmental risks.
The Project Water Quality and
Control of Water Pollution - PQA, is an important interface
between the recovery and protection of the quality of the
supply sources and the occupation and use of the land,
through actions geared towards urban infrastructure, notably
in shantytowns, resettling of populations in risk areas,
recomposition of vegetable cover, establishment of parks and
environmental protection areas, among others.
Brazil, policies for flood
prevention and flood warning, as well as to combat droughts,
are today mainly implemented by States and Counties.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy,
through the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL), operates
a hydrometric network (about 4000 stations) mainly to
regulate hydropower generation and also provide data for new
undertakings. Data from this network is also used by the
civil defense for disaster preparedness (floods and
droughts).
Conflicts of jurisdiction or
other matters are resolved through Federal Law No. 9433
(January 8, 1997), which established the Civil Water
Resources Organizations (Art. 47 and 48), the River Basin
Committees (Art. 37 to 40), the Water Agencies (Art. 41 to
44), the National Water Resources Council and the Executive
Secretariat of the National Water Resources Council (Art. 45
and 46).
Information collection at the
national level is carried out by the following:
Water Resources
Secretariat (SRH) - collects general data on water
resources;
National Meteorology Institute (INMET) -
collects meteorological data;
National Space Research Institute (INPE) -
collects meteorological data;
National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL) -
collects data on water availability.
At the state level:
State Water Resources Secretariats or
public water resources entities collect general data on
water resources;
State Environmental Secretariats and
public environmental entities collect water quality data.
In the agricultural sector:
The Ministry of Environment, Water
Resources and the Legal Amazon (MMA) and the Brazilian
Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE) collect data on
land use (area, arable land, permanent crops, pastures,
forest) and food production.
The MMA also collects data on irrigation
areas (methods, water consumption).
At the level of the household sector:
In 1995, SEPURB published a volume
entitled National Information System on Sanitation SNIS.
It is published annually with operational, economic,
financial data as well as data on the main service
providers of the country.
For the industrial sector:
IBGE collects data from the commercial and
industrial sectors. There are also several private
entities that collect data on this sector.
ANEEL collects water gauge height data.
Some of the information is
available on the INTERNET. Most of the publications of public
bodies are freely available, being provided upon request and
regularly sent to sector agents. Among the main organizations
publishing data are: IBGE (Statistical Yearbook); MAA
(bulletins from the Agricultural Policy Secretariat); MMA
(Water Resources Secretariat reports); ANEEL, INPE, INMET,
EMBRAPA, SRH/MMA, SEPURB/MPO and MS.
Most of the information is
available electronically. Generally the information is
available in electronic files, in word processing and
spreadsheet documents. Technology and Capacity-Building
The limits and conditions of
water quality to be observed for gross water include
physical, chemical and bacteriological parameters, and are
contained in CONAMA Resolution No. 20/1986.
The Public Water Supply Service
and the appropriate State Authority regularly carry out
control and monitoring of water quality, with the objective
of achieving and maintaining the Drinkability Standard
defined in Ministry of Health Directive No. 36, dated January
19, 1990, which uses as reference the standards established
by the World Health Organization.
The Drinkability Standard is the
set of maximum permissible values of the physical-chemical
characteristics of water intended for human consumption. This
Ministry of Health Directive defines the physical-chemical
and bacteriological parameters for monitoring water quality.
The competent State Sanitary Authorities of the States may,
considering local conditions, establish more restrictive
parameters, as well as waiving certain specific analyses,
once the non-existence of the chemical components in question
has been ascertained through historic data and sanitary
assessments.
Currently, the main deficit of
the Sanitation and Water Supply Sector is in the area of
sanitary sewerage, more specifically in treatment of sanitary
sewage. The main objective of the National Sanitation Policy
is to universalize water access and sanitary sewerage with at
least 80% of treatment by the year 2010.
The current capacity for sewage
treatment is 2,524,700 m /day, representing approximately 15%
of the sewage produced daily in the country, taking into
account the 27 State Basic Sanitation Companies and the 27
County Water and Sewerage Services for populations greater
than 100,000 that are part of the SNIS/95 (15 County Water
and Sewerage Services and 1300 County Water and Sewerage
Services for populations smaller than 100,000 are not part of
the SNIS/95).
There are no data on recycling of
waste water in Brazil.
In Brazil, according to the
National Research of Domestic Sampling - PNAD/96, 48.9% of
the sewage produced is collected in public systems, 32% of
which is treated, that is, 15.6% of the sewage produced in
Brazil is treated.
The principal goal of the
National Sanitation Policy - PNS is to make water supply
universal, that is 100% of coverage by the year 2010.
Sanitation Coverage (as a percent): For the year 2010, the
goal of the PNS is to make collection services available to
all, with treatment of at least 80% of the sanitary sewage
collected in public systems.
The technological needs to
achieve those goals include:
a) Recycling and
reuse of waste waters
b) Sewage
treatment
The development of technologies
for recycling and reuse of waste waters, both household and
industrial, is essential to reduce the contamination,
specially industrial, and waste, thus preserving water
resources.
In the Sanitation Sector there
will always be a need for new technologies for treating water
and sewage, since costs can be reduced and efficiency can be
increased. Thus the resources available for investment may be
used for both increasing coverage and for improving the
quality of services.
All water supplied to the
population by service providers must conform to the minimum
drinkability requirements established in the Ministry of
Health Directive No. 36, dated January 19, 1990. However, the
main objective of providing universal access is water
quality. Based on the information provided by the SNIS
(Diagnosis of Water and Sewage Services, 1995), 92.8% of the
volume of water produced and distributed to the population is
treated. Financing
It is estimated that the
investment necessary to eliminate the current deficit in
water supply and sanitary sewage services is around R$ 21.4
billion. If growth of the population by the year 2010 is
considered, the required funds will be around R$ 36 billion.
(US$ 1 = R$ 1.17)
The current flow of external
resources into water resource management and development
includes:
Technical
cooperation:
- Foreign funds
US$ 40.5 million (1995-1997)
- Brazilian counterpart funds
US$ 43.6 million
- Total for Water Resources US$
84.1 million
Grants:
- For projects under
execution US$ 12.3 million
Loans:
- Projects under
execution Resources
- Total Cost of Projects US$
8,362.4 billion
- Brazilian Counterpart US$
3,656.4 billion
- Total from External Sources
US$ 4,695.0 billion
- Multilateral Funds US$ 3,616.9
billion
- Bilateral Funds US$ 1,078.1
billion
- Private flows: data not available
Within the Sanitation area,
according to the Activities Report of the National Sanitation
Policy, the programs carried out by the Federal Government
from 1995 to 1997 were executed with 91.6% of its funds from
the Federal Government Budget, the Severance Pay Fund (FGTS)
and counterpart funds from States and Counties, and only 8.4%
from external sources. Regional and International cooperation
Brazil currently takes part in
the following bilateral and regional agreements for the use
of international watercourses, lakes or groundwater:
At the Bilateral
Level:
- Cooperation
Agreement between Brazil and Uruguay for the Use of
Natural Resources and Development of the Quara¡
River Basin
- Fishing Agreement between Brazil and
Argentina
- Agreement on Fishing and
Preservation of Renewable Natural Resources between
Brazil and Uruguay
- Agreement between the Government of
Brazil and the Government of Paraguay for the
Conservation of Water Fowl in Bordering Rivers
- Agreement of Amazon Cooperation
between the Government of Brazil and the Government
of Colombia
- Treaty for the Use of Shared Water
Resources of the Bordering Areas of the Uruguay River
and its Tributary, the Pepiri-Guaçu, between Brazil
and Argentina
At the Regional
Level:
- Treaty of the Rio de
la Plata This is an agreement among Argentina,
Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay for flood
warning. Information is exchanged daily and most of
it is are available on the Internet.
- Amazon Cooperation Treaty among
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru,
Surinam and Venezuela.
Mas información - (enlaces) - (Brasil)
http://habitat.aq.upm.es/bpn/bp029.html
Saneamiento ambiental y rehabilitación urbana
de la cuenca de Guarapiranga (Brasil).
| Indice | Presentación | Contenidos Didácticos | Investigación |
| Noticias | Sitemap | Master | Redes de Control
| Enlaces |
| Ponencias
en esta web | Bases de
Datos | Foro | Punto de Encuentro
|
| Inicio Página | Volver a Tierra |
Ultima
actualización: 9 de Junio de 2003.©
Paginas elaboradas por J. Martínez-Frías
y F. López Lunar
Pagina actualizada y corregida por ^_^ ©
A. Pelayo Martínez
HidroRed 